De Fergetten Oarloggen fan 2024 en 2025
March 24, 2026 · Frisian News
While the world watched Ukraine and the Middle East, armed conflicts in Africa, Asia, and Latin America killed thousands with barely a mention in Western news. Media silence does not mean these wars matter less.
FryskYn maart 2025 kosten gefjochten tusken rivalisearjende fraksjes yn de Demokratyske Republyk Kongo mear as 500 minsken it libben yn ien wike. De ynternasjonale parse skreau dêr neat oer. Fjouwer moannen earder kosten gefjochten tusken Fulani-hearders en lânboumienskippen yn Mali 1.200 minsken it libben yn mar trije moannen. Westerske media dy't ploegen nei protesten yn New York stjoerd hiene, fûnen tiid foar gjin fan beide ferhalen. Dizze deaden barden. Se telle. Dochs gie de nijssyklus fierder.
It patroan werhellet him oer kontinenten. Gefjochten yn Myanmar tusken de militêre junta en bewapene groepen hawwe sûnt ein 2023 hûnderttûzenden ferdreaun fan hûs en hiem. In oarloch fan lege yntinsiteit op de Filipinen set regearingstroepen tsjin kommunistyske opstannelingen. Kolombja fjochtet tsjin drugskartel dy't hiele regio's kontrolearje. Gjin fan dizze konflikten ûntbrekt grouwélichheid of skaal, mar alle diele ien ding: se passe net yn it geopolitike ferhaal dat westerske redakteuren keazen hawwe út te dragen.
It omtinken fan de media folget macht, net lijen. Oekraïne telt omdat it in NAVO-lid en Ruslân oanbelanget. Gaza telt omdat it op it krúspunt leit fan Amerikaanske macht, oalje en ideology. Mar as Afrikaanen Afrikaanen deadzje, as Aziaten tsjin Aziaten fjochtsje, as Latynsk-Amerikannen har eigen stêden ferneatigje, feroaret de berekkening. Dizze oarloggen misse de haadrol dy't de konkurrinsje tusken grutte mogendheden easket. Se ferfelje it publyk dat traind is om wrâldfoarfallen troch de lens fan Amerikaansk belang te sjen.
It deadetal bewiist it punt. Skattingen suggerearje dat konflikten yn Afrika en Aazje yn 2024 en 2025 tegearre mear minsken it libben kosten as Oekraïne of Gaza yn deselde jierren dienen. Dochs ferdiele de nijsdekking him ûngelyk. De fergetten oarloggen krigen in fraksje fan de dekking, in fraksje fan de help, in fraksje fan de diplomaatske ynspanning. Lytse lannen sûnder strategyske wearde foar grutte mogendheden leare dat harren deaden net as nijs telle.
Dizze ûnferskillichheid hat gefolgen. Konflikten dy't gjin kamera's lûke, smeule troch en groeie. Oarlochshearren rekrutearje makliker as de wrâld harren negearret. Grutte honger ferspriedt him yn oarloggen dêr't nimmen op let. As it Westen bepaalt dat in konflikt net telt, ferlieze striidende partijen prikkels om te ûnderhanneljen, omdat nimmen harren twinge sil te stopjen. De fergetten oarloggen sille net fergetten bliuwe. Se groeie gewoanwei oant se te djoer wurde om te negearjen.
In March 2025, fighting between rival factions in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed over 500 people in a single week. The international press printed nothing. Four months earlier, violence between Fulani herders and farming communities in Mali claimed 1,200 lives in just three months. Western outlets that had sent crews to cover protests in New York found time for neither story. These deaths happened. They matter. Yet the news cycle moved on.
The pattern repeats across continents. Fighting in Myanmar between the military junta and armed groups has displaced hundreds of thousands since late 2023. A low-grade war in the Philippines pits government troops against communist insurgents. Colombia battles drug cartels that control entire regions. None of these conflicts lack brutality or scale, but all share one thing: they do not fit the geopolitical narrative that Western editors have chosen to push.
Media attention follows power, not suffering. Ukraine matters because it involves a NATO member and Russia. Gaza matters because it sits at the intersection of American power, oil, and ideology. But when Africans kill Africans, when Asians fight Asians, when Latin Americans destroy their own towns, the calculation changes. These wars lack the starring role that great power competition demands. They bore audiences trained to see world events through the lens of American interest.
The body count proves the point. Estimates suggest that conflicts in Africa and Asia killed more people in 2024 and 2025 combined than either Ukraine or Gaza did in those same years. Yet news coverage split itself unequally. The forgotten wars received a fraction of the coverage, a fraction of the aid, a fraction of the diplomatic effort. Small countries with no strategic value to major powers learn that their dead do not count as news.
This indifference carries consequences. Conflicts that attract no cameras tend to fester and grow. Warlords find it easier to recruit when the world ignores them. Famine spreads in wars that nobody watches. When the West decides a conflict does not matter, the combatants lose incentive to negotiate, because no one will pressure them to stop. The forgotten wars will not stay forgotten. They will simply grow until they cost too much to ignore.
Published March 24, 2026 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân